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Jail For Man Who Helped Gunman Moat

A Northumberland man who lied to police hunting shotgun maniac Raoul Moat and tried to hide a van he had used has been jailed for 15 months.

Scott Raisbeck, 31, also removed crucial evidence from the Ford Transit he had lent to Moat's accomplice, Karl Ness, and stored them in his garage

He has been sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court after earlier admitting perverting the course of justice and handling stolen goods.

Last July, Moat and Ness travelled in Raisbeck's van from Newcastle to Birtley, Gateshead, where the former bouncer executed his love rival, Chris Brown, and shot his ex-girlfriend, Samantha Stobbart. The van, which was stolen, had been passed on to Ness so he could sell it.

Ness, looking ``distraught'', returned it to Raisbeck after the shootings, saying he had been unable to find a buyer. When, days later, police arrived at Raisbeck's home in Glebe Close, Blyth, Northumberland, he fled.

He was arrested later and claimed he had no white van and did not know Ness. By then, the judge said Raisbeck must have known the vehicle had been used in the shootings.

Detectives swiftly saw through the lies and he later told them he had dumped the van outside a derelict property in Blyth and dropped the keys down a drain.

Police searched Raisbeck's garage and found a laptop used by Moat to search the internet for details about Mr Brown and a bag which contained two shotgun cartridges.

The prosecution accepted that Raisbeck had not provided the van to Ness knowing it would be used in Moat's rampage. The Crown also agreed the van played no part in Moat blasting Pc David Rathband 24 hours after the Birtley shootings.

And it was further accepted that Raisbeck's lies did not ``ultimately prejudice the police inquiries''.